By Danny Danon, JNS
The Israel Day parade in New York was a reminder that Israel does not seek war, and that the Jewish people have not forgotten how hate starts.
On Sunday, we celebrated.
Despite 58 hostages still held in brutal Hamas captivity, and thousands of our sons and daughters continuing to fight heroically in a war we did not start, we converged on Fifth Avenue in New York City on May 18 with community leaders, hostage families and fellow U.N. ambassadors for the world’s largest gathering in support of the State of Israel.
We are all in pain, but we are not broken.
In 1965, during Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s visit to New York, thousands of people gathered on Fifth Avenue for an impromptu parade in what has since become an annual spectacle demonstrating New Yorkers’ immense support for the Middle East’s only vibrant democracy.
Today, our message remains the same and will be resolute and clear: We will never leave any of our hostages behind, and we will ensure that the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists can never threaten Israel again.
The recent release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old Israeli-American hostage who was held by Hamas for 584 days, was something we’ve all been praying for. At the United Nations last Chanukah, I promised Edan’s parents, Adi and Yael, that we would not rest until every last hostage is brought home.
We will continue to raise awareness on the international stage, and in the halls of the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly, that Israel will do whatever is necessary to bring them all home. We will continue to hold to account agencies and officials who lodge baseless claims of “genocide” against Israel while turning a blind eye to the genocidal Hamas terrorists whose barbaric massacre nearly 600 days ago ignited this conflict.
We will continue to work with our allies inside the United Nations to ensure that the plight of our hostages remains at the forefront of the international agenda. Last week, Leah Goldin, the mother of Hadar Goldin, whose corpse has been held by Hamas for more than a decade, came to the United Nations to urge action. As did Ruby Chen, who addressed the Security Council and urged the ambassadors to implement U.N. Resolution 2474 so that he can be reunited with his son, Itay, an American-German-Israeli citizen, who was brutally murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
The war will not end so long as hostages remain in Gaza.
On Sunday, we reminded the world that Israel does not seek war. Israel maintains a seat at the United States because diplomacy is our preferred avenue of engagement. At the same time, any hostile force that threatens our people and country will face consequences.
The Israel parade was also a reminder that the Jewish people have not forgotten how hate starts. Having just marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, we carry the memory and lessons of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust did not start in the gas chambers. It did not begin with ghettos or deportation trains. It began with words, with dehumanizing lies. With the slow, steady normalization of Jew-hatred, the likes of which we have called out in the streets of Manhattan and on college campuses nationwide.
These were lessons that 30 of my ambassadorial counterparts at the United Nations saw firsthand during our historic visit to Poland in April to participate in the annual “March of the Living” program with Holocaust survivors.
The Jewish people have not forgotten. Especially when we see hate and antisemitism gaining momentum and metastasizing under the guise of anti-Zionism, we carry with us the lessons—and the obligation—to ensure that what happened once will never happen again.
